Brandon Flowers Scouting Report

Brandon Flowers, CB, Virginia Tech

Once he announced he was going pro, Brandon Flowers started shooting up everybody's list of top corners heading into the NFL. As a junior at Virginia Tech, the corner back had a tremendous campaign. He picked off five passes, shut down some of the best receivers in the ACC and found some strength to occasionally get into the opposing backfield. He tallied 86 tackles and was on a plethora of preseason and postseason All-American and All-Conference teams. Flowers played plenty of man-to-man and zone coverage at Virginia Tech as a boundary corner. At 5-10 and 190 pounds, his size is a big concern for NFL teams. Against some of the bigger receivers in the NFL, his lack of strength will be a big problem. However, he does have the agility and quickness to make up for it. Unfortunately for Flowers, his rising stock took a big hit at the combine. Without the size, Flowers needed to prove he had the speed to make up for it. As a boundary corner in college, he did not have to show off his speed with little ground to cover. Thus, his 40 time at the Combine was going to be very important. Running a 4.58 40 was a huge disappointment and for now Flowers' stock is dropping back into the second round. Now Flowers will have to wait for his pro day in March and hope that he can run a much faster 40 time. 4/4 Update: Brandon Flowers did run a slightly faster 40 at Virginia Tech's Pro Day, but hovering around the 4.5 range at best might not be good enough to get him where he wants to go. Overall, Flowers did improve on his poor Combine numbers and showed off some athleticism, but without blazing speed and above average strength, it will fall on how scouts perceive his instincts. There are also reports about off-field issues and those concerns might keep Flowers sliding down draft boards even further.